El Lefty Malo

4.08.2005

Tomko Flashback

No matter what Brett Tomko did last night, the Giants were going to lose. As Marty noted last night, you can't win when you can't score a run off Jeff Spicoli, er, Weaver.

But what Tomko did was interesting, in a grim forensic kind of way. The first five innings of work were strong, efficient, and reminiscent of his second-half surge last year. Even with men on base I didn't think the Dodgers would get good wood on the ball. Without Grissom's error in the fourth inning that let Kent advance to third, the Dodgers would have been scoreless through five.

But the sixth inning reminded me of the first half of Tomko's 2004 season, especially the game against the Mets in New York when he cruised for several innings then fell apart after some poor defense behind him. Perhaps it was early season fatigue after 90 pitches, but his concentration seemed to flag. 0-2 to Choi: wild pitch. (Isn't Matheny supposed to block those things?) 0-2 to Weaver: basehit (inexcusable). Then a 3-1 fastball to Izturis right down the piperoo.

Let's see if the newly focused Zen-master Tomko can shake off the old habits in his next start.

And let's all hope the Giant starting rotation can match the zeroes the Giants' lineup will be producing in the next couple weeks. UPDATE: Here's a sobering stat from last night, courtesy of David Pinto:

Weaver threw eight shutout innings, averaging less than 13 pitches per inning. Given that he only struck out two, the Giants were likely swinging early in the count, and getting nothing out of the balls in play. They were 5 for 25 on balls in play, a .200 average.

What's a Lefty Malo?

It's an ancient Mexican baseball insult. Eighteen
years ago, I was pitching for my high school team in a tournament in Guadalajara, and two borrachos down
the third-base line heckled me with the insult "Lefty Malo," a.k.a., Bad Lefty.